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Keiyou Campaign Arc
Keiyou Campaign Arc is the 2nd story arc of the Kingdom manga. Summary Forming an Army Joining the fourth of six armies marching west to Keiyou, Shin entered his first campaign as a lowly foot solider. Pausing in route, they were then directed to organize into "GOs", a system in which four men and a squad leader traveled, bunked, and fought together. Often sharing the same fate, the quality of a GOs members was crucial to its survival and success on the field of battle. Regarded as weak by the other soldiers, he was forced to group up with the remaining outcast, including: the man considered the weakest squad leader; Taku Kei, the Bi Brothers, Tou and Hei, from his village; and the short, cloaked, mysterious swordsmen Kyou Kai. On the march he is reunited with Heki, who has entered the war as a 1000-man commander. Originally intending to head to Gan Castle, where they would be led by General Koku Gou, they are instead rerouted to Asui to join the 1st and 2nd army, after Gan Castle is captured by Wei troops, its army massacred and Koku Gou slain. But before they arrive, their destination is altered once more, this time to the Dakan Plains, where Supreme Commander Duke Hyou had decided to meet Wei troops head on. By the time the battle field is in sight, fierce combat has already commenced. Before entering the fray there were counted off into thousand man squads, in which Shin's GO was placed under the command of Baku Koshin. Chariots Once in position, the infantry were ordered to charge straight into enemy lines, who countered by drawing their pikemen forward to skewer the advancing foot soldiers. Leaping over enemy lines as he had done at Crimson Turtle Gate, he cuts them down from behind, creating a break his troops can advance through. Their progress is soon halted however, when Wei chariots sweep through their ranks, rapidly cutting them down. Surviving the first wave, Kyou Kai suggested they use the dead bodies and shields to build ramparts to divert the chariots. Hearing this, a number of other squads joined in, managing to build a total of three ramparts just in time to successfully stay off the following wave. Now safe behind their barricades, Kyou Kai suggested it was time to launch a counter attack. Drawing a javelin from one of the corpses, Shin took out the driver of an incoming chariot, causing it to flip and send its rider's flying. He then stole a surviving horse and road out to meet the chariots head on, targeting their wheels, he rammed javelins between their spokes to take them out one at a time. Passing scattered survivors, he directed them to regroup at his ramparts, thus saving the 4th army from near destruction. Unaware of Shin's acts and concerned for then lives of the 4th army's infantry, Heki suggested they send out the cavalry to repel the chariots. Baku Koshin refused however, stating that the order had yet been given. Heki argues that the infantries lives will be thrown away for nothing, and Baku rebukes him asking if he came to win a war or protect men, claiming that the men's lives were not lost in vain, but as sacrifices for victory, expressing his complete faith in Duke Hyou. Receiving a report of the fourth armies survival, Duke Hyou finally makes his move, ordering the cavalry to charge and take the hill. The cavalry ride in just in time to save the fragile army from the bulk of Wei's infantry, and Shin and Heki are reunited. Taking the Hill Duke Hyou's Charge Notes Characters Introduced Kyou Kai Hi Shin Unit Duke Hyou Army Bi Tou Bi Hei Taku Kei Navigation Category:Manga